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Sunday, January 8, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 85
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STUDY: SOCIAL COMMERCE SEEN TO FUEL E-COMMERCE GROWTH IN PHL, ASEAN
SUTTHINON SANYAKUP | DREAMSTIME.COM
Reasons to go ‘live shopping’
By Roderick L. Abad
W
and personalized,” he added.
Contributor
Actual selling streamed online
ITH the booming social commerce market in Southeast Asia (SEA), live shopping and conversational commerce are the most effective ways for Filipinos to spend online, according to Singapore-based market intelligence firm Cube Asia. Based on results of its newly released inaugural report titled “Social Commerce in Southeast Asia 2022,” social experiences are expected to directly influence $42 billion, or 25 percent, of online trade sales in the region by the end of last year. The ensuing Covid-19 pandemic, which limits people’s mobility, has made them spend more time on social platforms. This, eventually, has opened longerterm opportunities in e-commerce. Rather than just depending solely on advertising for highquality traffic, virtual trade channels have also relied on social media—thanks to their strong followings—which are expected to capture a greater share of the economic value. Marketplaces are trying to introduce social features to make their own platforms more engaging. Such trend makes different brands wonder how big, viable, profitable and effective social commerce is to their growth. To address these questions,
“By introducing e-commerce into this environment, live shopping catches customers in the right mindset, at a time when they are having fun and are more emotionally available for brands to connect with them,” —Simon Torring, head of growth and client service at Cube Asia
Cube Asia, in partnership with Sprinklr, conducted this research initiative by systematically dissecting the four different social elements in online trade that make up the social commerce market.
Social commerce on the rise
THE study projected that e-
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commerce on social platforms will wrap up 2022 well, bringing $34-billion sales to the region. This largest contributor to social commerce refers to any form of sales activity that occurs directly on social channels. It is influenced heavily by social aspects of human relationships, such as real-time communication, authenticity, trust and community. While Facebook and Instagram played earlier than TikTok on social platform commerce, they are now falling behind the Chinese short mobile video platform—a rising star in this space—that offers a number of distinctive features and solutions. Digital conversation breeds mobile, physical sales. Cube Asia’s report, on the other hand, shows that conversational commerce directly contributes $12 billion
in SEA, where customers choose a product and pay using the messaging app. This form of social commerce is ubiquitous as it covers the whole e-commerce journey and improves customer experiences. Also, it gives buyers a new way of seeking service and clarity while buying online, thus encouraging more consumer-led transactions. What’s more, conversational commerce indirectly transacts a much bigger volume of $50 billion via web chat and $200 billion for online-to-offline transactions. This is best exemplified by customers having initial conversations with store staff over messaging platforms like Whats App and, eventually, complete their purchases in the physical or brick-and-mortar outlet. This form of social commerce is among the most promising and
vibrant trends in SEA’s online trade. Expanding out of sheer organic demand from consumers, it gained impressive penetration and usage rates despite limited platform and vendor tools. “The pandemic changed consumer behavior forever, accelerating the rapid adoption of digital products and services and boosting the importance of e-commerce across Southeast Asia,” said Florian Zenner, senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan at Sprinklr. “As Cube Asia’s research demonstrates, conversational commerce is set to play a growing role among the region’s retailers. The most successful businesses will seize the opportunity to harness technology such as AI chatbots or voice assistance to deliver customers experiences that are convenient
RESTRICTIONS on the movement of Southeast Asians, especially during the lockdown periods, did not stop them from seeing what they are about to buy, though virtually with actual selling activities streaming on the web, including real-time visual engagement and product demonstrations. Hence, it’s not surprising for live shopping sales in the region to increase more than tenfold to $13 billion in 2022, per the research. Nearly half or 44 percent of netizens in the region have participated in live shopping in the last 12 months, with the most active audiences in Vietnam and Thailand where 60 percent of respondents have made a purchase. Singapore lags behind in comparison with only about 35 percent of users shopping from live streams this year. Live shopping in the Philippines is seen as encouraging in this market since Filipinos are big consumers of entertaining online content, with 75 percent of Internet users having watched live streams in 2022, according to Simon Torring, head of growth and client service at Cube Asia. “By introducing e-commerce into this environment, live shopping catches customers in the right mindset, at a time when they are having fun and are more emotionally available for brands to connect with them,” he told the BusinessMirror in an email interview. Continued on A2
n JAPAN 0.4190 n UK 66.5745 n HK 7.1537 n CHINA 8.1224 n SINGAPORE 41.5537 n AUSTRALIA 37.7256 n EU 58.8271 n KOREA 0.0439 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.8744
Source: BSP (January 6, 2023)